Once the Samsung Galaxy Note 4G Android smartphone arrived on the AT&T 4G LTE network in February of this year, several things begin to happen very quickly. First, many industry analysts and tech experts explained the 5.3 inch screen and 5.78 inch x 3.27 inch overall measurement would make the device too big for consumers to effectively hold in their hand. About that same time, Samsung bravely stated that the S Pen smart stylus equipped Galaxy Note 4G with its large high-resolution screen, native handwriting recognition technology, and “mini-tablet” traits would create an entirely new device category and would shape the way smartphones are made in the future. The third and most important thing that happened was that the Galaxy Note started selling, and started selling very well, in the face of industry analysts’ very meager expectations.
Depending on which online resource you believe, the Galaxy Note handset has sold between 7 million and 10 million units globally. To say it has been a sales success for Samsung and AT&T would be putting it mildly. And as a trendsetter, it appears that Samsung may have been right in their proclamation that it would create a whole new device category. Soon after the Galaxy Note 4G arrived, consumer electronics aficionados and Blogosphere veterans began calling it a “phablet”, for part phone, part tablet. And at least one consumer-electronics analysis firm agrees that larger high-powered smartphones are the wave of the future.
ABI Research recently released their extensive research and data which estimates as many as 208 million smartphones with displays from 4.6 inches to 5.5 inches will be sold as early as 2015, and that specific display size is what they consider a phablet to be. Aside from the native handwriting integration that allows you to write in your own handwriting in multiple applications on the device, the Samsung Galaxy Note also delivers a high resolution display. The 5.30 inch Super AMOLED screen is rendered in 285 pixels per inch and 16 million colors, resulting in an overall screen resolution of 800 x 1,280 pixels.
Talk time runs approximately 25% better than the 4G average, at 10.0 hours from a single charge of the 2,500 mA battery, and a dual core 1.5 GHz central processor joins a graphics dedicated processor in the Qualcomm MSM8660 microchip package that powers the device. 1.0 GB of RAM system memory is on board, and 16 GB of user accessible storage are built-in. The rear facing 8.0 megapixel camcorder provides video capture at a high resolution 1,080P HD, and the front facing 2.0 megapixel chat cam also provides video call support. Facebook, YouTube, Picasa and Twitter applications have been pre-installed, and the Samsung Galaxy Note was one of the first mobile handsets to provide Near Field Communication (NFC) support out-of-the-box. You can buy the Samsung Galaxy Note 4G starting at $199.
